Table 2.

Clinical trials of probiotic intervention for prevention or treatment of colorectal cancer

Model	Treatment	Results	Reference
20 human volunteers	R/DB/PC/C. Resistant starch (RS) containing high-amylose maize starch and Bifidobacterium lactis (alone or in combination).	The synbiotic intervention fostered a unique fecal stream bacterial community, with greater proportion of patients harboring fecal Lachnospiraceae spp. No significant effect on epithelial proliferation or crypt height was observed, and fecal SCFA concentrations did not change between interventions or when compared with baseline (probably due to low doses of RS).	282
38 healthy men	R/DB/PC/C. Lactobacillus rhamnosus LC705 (LC705) together with Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp shermanii JS (PJS)	Administration of LC705 and PJS was followed by an increase in the fecal counts of lactobacilli and propionibacteria and a decrease in the activity of β-glucosidase.	111
150 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer	Lactobacillus GG	Lactobacillus GG supplementation was well tolerated and may reduce the frequency of severe diarrhea and abdominal discomfort related to 5-FU-based chemotherapy.	197
398 men and women presently free from tumor who had had at least 2 colorectal tumors removed	Wheat bran and/or L. casei	L. casei prevented atypia of colorectal tumors.	123
31 subjects undergoing elective colorectal resection for cancer	Mixture of Bifidobacterium longum (BB536) and Lactobacillus johnsonii (La1)	La1, but not BB536, adheres to the colonic mucosa and affects intestinal microbiota by reducing the concentration of pathogens and modulates local immunity.	96
37 patients with colon cancer and 43 polypectomized patients	R/DB/PC. A synbiotic preparation-oligofructose-enriched inulin (SYN1) + Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) and Bifidobacterium lactis Bb12 (BB12)	Numbers of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus increased, and Clostridium perfringens decreased. There was a reduction of colorectal proliferation, and the capacity of fecal water to induce necrosis in colonic cells and improve epithelial barrier function in polypectomized patients. Synbiotic consumption prevented an increased secretion of interleukin-2 by peripheral blood mononuclear cells in polypectomized patients and increased the production of interferon-γ in cancer patients.	213
100 patients with colorectal carcinoma scheduled for radical colorectomy randomly divided into control (n = 50) and probiotics groups (n = 50)	Probiotics containing Lactobacillus plantarum (CGMCC No. 1258, 1011 CFU/g), Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA-11, 1010 CFU/g), and Bifidobacterium longum (BL-88, 1010 CFU/ g)	Intervention lasted 16 days (6 days preoperatively and 10 days postoperatively). The total probiotic daily dose was 2.6 × 1014 CFU/g). The treatment improved the integrity of the gut mucosal barrier and balance of the gut microbiota and decreased rate of post surgical infection.	154

R/DB/PC/C: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial.